


Sound and Vision.

by springburn



Series: Dr Who mini fics and prompts [19]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Blindness, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Senses, feels....lots of feels, loss of sight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 17:08:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10903758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/springburn/pseuds/springburn
Summary: The Doctor has returned from Chasm Forge.He cannot see.





	Sound and Vision.

**Author's Note:**

> So this was inspired by last night's awesome episode. It is set between the end of the Oxygen episode and the beginning of the next. 
> 
> It was so intense and so emotional. The Doctor looked so vulnerable. 
> 
> It is named after the Bowie song. 
> 
> 'Sound and Vision.'
> 
> Don't you wonder sometimes  
> 'Bout sound and vision
> 
> Blue, blue, electric blue  
> That's the colour of my room  
> Where I will live  
> Blue, blue
> 
> Pale blinds drawn all day  
> Nothing to do, nothing to say  
> Blue, blue
> 
> I will sit right down,  
> Waiting for the gift of sound and vision  
> And I will sing, waiting for the gift of sound and vision  
> Drifting into my solitude,  
> over my head
> 
> Don't you wonder sometimes  
> 'Bout sound and vision

SOUND AND VISION.

The Doctor's university office was still and quiet. 

Seated, legs up on the desk, shades on. Listening intently. 

Odd how the loss of one sense heightened all the others, he mused. 

A fire was kindled in the hearth, even though it was June. 

He could feel it's radiated warmth, smell the flaming embers and hear the crackle and snap of the wood as it burned.  
Comforting. 

The window was open too......well, it _was_ June. 

From outside, a cheery chatter of voices filtered up to him. Happy, young people.  
Students, on their way to classes, books under their arms, talking nineteen to the dozen.  
Or on their mobile phones. 

A snatch of music reached him, from somewhere below. The tune he recognised, but couldn't put a name to. 

Was it Elbow? He couldn't be sure. 

With a long index finger he pushed this sunglasses up his nose.  
The chair creaked as he leaned further back into it. 

There was a blackbird singing.  
In the ash tree which came almost to his office window. He could hear the wind rustling the leaves. A thousand tiny whooshing sounds as each puff of wind stirred the branches.  
The bird repeated its melody. The notes answered by a rival, some way away.  
Battle of the songbirds. 

He smiled wistfully to himself. 

At that moment he was aware of the door opening. 

Turning his whole head towards the sound. Cocked on one side slightly. 

Then smiling knowingly again.

"Come in Nardole!" 

"How did you know it was me, Sir?" 

The Doctor laughed. 

"Because you need oiling my little mechanical friend!" 

The response was a huff of indignation. 

"I brought you tea......and I didn't put coffee in it this time." 

A tray was set upon his desk with a clink. 

The pale little man pushed the cup towards the Timelord. 

His fingers reached forwards automatically, feeling for it, with great care, lest he tip it over and burn himself. 

A slight fumble as the hand latched on, encircling the mug and bringing it to his mouth, to sip tentatively. 

Smacking his lips with satisfaction. 

Watched with great concern by the man in the duffle coat opposite him. 

"You're really getting the hang of this tea making lark!" He smiled a third time, his sightless eyes following the sound of Nardole's movement across the room, towards the bookshelves. 

"Any change?" Was the only reply, as the servant returned to the side of his master, carrying a pen torch. 

"None. I didn't expect there to be." His voice was soft. Almost serene, as if this thing that had been visited upon him was an inevitable consequence of one too many risks taken. 

A predestined, inescapable repercussion of a life lived on the edge. 

He sensed the man close to him now, moving backwards slightly, craning his neck upwards from where he sat, as he felt, rather than saw, the bulk of a sturdy body leaning over him, breath hot against his skin, tickling his cheek. 

Nardole shone the torch directly into the pale lifeless eyes. 

There was no reaction. Neither from the pupils, nor the man. 

"Do you see the light?" He asked, not unkindly. 

"Nothing." Came the reply. 

"I cannot even tell night from day." 

"Have you told the girl yet?" Nardole moved away, as the Doctor uncrossed his legs, resting them back on the carpeted floor.  
Sliding his hand across his face, lifting the shades, pushing them back onto his head, then rubbing at the affected area fruitlessly. 

_"No!_ And she mustn't know. No one must." Again, his head followed the sound, the movement he could not see. 

"It's not fair.....on her.....you should tell her." 

"The fewer people who know, the less likely our friend in the vault downstairs will find out."

"They'll sense it. Both of them." 

"Not necessarily. Don't do it Nardole. Keep it under your woolly hat." 

The silence hung between the two alien beings. 

The air was thick with it. An eerie stillness you could cut with a knife. Broken only by the falling embers on the fire, as they sank in the grate. 

Eventually the smaller man caved. 

_"I told you!_ Didn't I? No going off world! But you wouldn't listen!" 

"Nardole....this is pointless. What's done is done. I've had my just punishment. I just got bored that's all.....it's been over fifty years!" 

"And your head was turned by a new and bright face!" 

" _Oh shut up!_ Bill is so eager, so keen to learn......so fresh......she reminded me....... _of me!_ Many lifetimes ago. You know how I get.....I miss it all......it's lonely here.....I love Earth, but it isn't my home. Out there is my home." 

He waved a hand towards the window distractedly. 

"You miss _HER_!" The servant replied simply, gathering up the tea tray and heading towards the door. 

A heavy sigh. 

"Yes! Okay! I admit it. I miss her. I miss them all......Bill has brought a bit of pleasure back into my life.....seeing her keen smiling face, that way she has about her, of hitting the nail firmly on the head.....in such a refreshingly disarming way!" 

_"I said it'd end in tears!_ " Was Nardole's parting shot as he left the room. 

Alone once more, the Doctor leaned forwards across the desk. 

Reaching for the photos he kept there. 

To remind him.

Knowing instinctively where they were. 

Bringing the picture of River closer to him, holding it on either side, he brushed his thumbs gently over the face.  
As if actually feeling the skin, the soft curls of the hair. 

Allowing his blank eyes to fall shut. 

Sitting thus for a few moments. 

Lost in thought.

The blackness which surrounded him seemed to darken even more. Shutting him off from everything.  
A deep, dark, inky void.  
It surrounded him like a pall of thick cloud.  
Taking him into himself. 

Solitary confinement. 

A lonely place indeed. Where the mere touch of another's skin would be so very welcome.

He could hear the beat of his own twin hearts. Feel the pulse of life in his own neck.  
Taking a breath in, he held it. Letting his respiratory bypass kick in. 

In his minds eye, colours danced. Shades of red and blue. His pale eyelids fluttered.  
A faintness suddenly overwhelmed him. 

Then, a slightest of touches, like the tickle of a feather, on his arm, just below the point where his jumper sleeve ended and his wrist began. 

_"Doctor?_ " 

The eyes snapped open with a start. Even though he could see nothing but emptiness. 

A rush of air left him, as he came back into the room, freed from the shadowy abyss where he had been stumbling, desolate and alone. 

_"Bill!_ " He gasped. Dropping the picture frame on the floor in his alarm. 

Flustered that she had apparently been able to creep up on him unawares. 

"You alright?" Her hand was still resting lightly on his wrist, one finger grazing over the knobbled carpus bone there, the touch gentle, almost tender.  
Her skin was velvety against his own, and the sensation in his darkness was blessèd balm. 

"Yeah! Course!" It was clear to her that he was still extremely perturbed. 

"I thought you were catching forty winks!" She laughed, taking her hand away.

At the sound of that merry tinkle, his sightless eyes filled with tears, unbidden. 

He made no move to retrieve the photo, so she bent and did it for him, not failing to notice that his hands did not reach to take it from her, so she laid it carefully on the desk in front of him. 

"Who me? I'm a Timelord! Sleep is for tortoises!" He did not sound at all convincing. 

Suddenly, he was enveloped in a warm and genuine hug. 

Still seated, she bent over his body awkwardly, her arms tight around his neck. The brush of her bush of wiry hair pressed against his cheek and neck. 

"I.....Bill!" 

He stammered a protest, but then, succumbed. Bringing his own arms around her back, holding her to his chest for a few seconds, before releasing her, and placing his hands on her shoulders to ease her back, away from him. 

"What was that for?" He enquired, trying to sound amused. 

"I dunno.....but you seem down since we came back from Chasm Forge......not quite yourself....you know? I thought it might be because you were worried about me.....but you don't need to be.....I'm fine......really!" 

She was looking directly into his face although he didn't know it. 

The Doctor smiled, the best and most convincing smile he could muster. 

"Well, yes. I was......worried I mean. But I'm glad you've told me. You're okay.....that's good to know.......and now.......you have an essay to write......here's your homework....."  
He felt for, and clasped a sheaf of papers.  
"......don't forget, I'm still your tutor you know......and it has to be a First......otherwise......" 

He left the sentence hanging. 

Bill moved around the table until it was between them. Noticing the way his head followed the sound. 

"Yeah! Okay.....I won't let you down.....promise!" 

Frowning, she leaned in over his desk, waving a hand in front of his face. 

He neither commented nor reacted in any way. 

Her eyes grew wide with fear. Then pity. Tears pricking, teetering, then falling almost unnoticed. 

"Good! I'm glad to hear it.....now you must leave me be.....I've work to do......essays to mark....."

Standing, she watched intently as he crossed the room confidently as far as the window, resting by the sill for a moment, before closing the casement with a snap. 

Wiping her face, she seemed to reach a decision. 

"Okay.....see you then Doctor! Laters!" Her tone all enforced cheeriness. 

"Yeah." He replied mournfully. "Laters!" 

At the closing of the door, he let out a rush of breath he didn't know he'd been holding. 

Relieved.

He'd pulled it off. 

His secret was safe. 

In its corner the Tardis gave a clang of warning. 

_"And you can shut up too!_ " He snapped. 

 

Fin.


End file.
